Rainbow
by The Plot Bunny Whisperer
Summary: Ever wonder why Duo only wears black? This may be a reason...


The Plot Bunny Whisperer  
  
Rainbow  
  
PG  
  
Humor/Angst  
  
Ever wonder why Duo only wears black? This may be a reason...  
  
- 1x2 implied -  
  
-  
  
Enjoy.  
  
-  
  
It was a usual Saturday morning.  
  
In the kitchen, Quatre was whipping up banana creme pancakes while Trowa supervised and *tried* not to steal any of the delectable batter lest Quatre go Zero on him. Again.  
  
In the dining room, Heero diligently set the table, putting everything in it's proper place in accordance to where the others sat, straitening a stubborn fork. For the third time.  
  
In the living room, Wufei was chasing a hysterically laughing Duo with his katana drawn, shouting something about justice and Nataku. As usual.  
  
Yes, it was your average Saturday morning at the House O' Insanity (named, obviously, by Duo during one of his... em... more-hyper-than-usual moments). Either to save Duo from being skewered, or to annoy Wufei for not being able to skewer him (he wasn't quite sure which one sounded nicer), Heero called for Duo's assistance while he himself grabbed some plates.  
  
"Oui, mon capitan?" Duo chirruped in a horrible French accent.  
  
"Grab the blue cups, would you?" the stoic ex-Wing pilot called over his shoulder. Duo faltered for a moment, but grinned to cover it up. Had Heero not been, well, himself, he probably would not have caught it.  
  
"Aye, aye, captain!" Duo saluted and turned sharply, marching into the kitchen. But as he neared the cupboards where he knew the cups were, he stopped and stared at them uneasily. Hesitantly, he opened the middle door and peered inside.  
  
"Something wrong, Duo?" Quatre asked from the stove. He and Trowa looked at the American curiously.  
  
"Nothing, nothing," the brunet said hastily. "Heero just wanted me to get some cups. The blue ones."  
  
"Oh. You know where they are. Third shelf, as usual." Duo looked relieved for some reason, and quickly grabbed five cups from the third shelf and bounced out of the room. Behind him, he didn't see Quatre and Trowa exchange looks.  
  
"Duo," Heero said patiently as the boy held out the cups, "those are green. I said the blue."  
  
"A cup's a cup!" Duo snapped defensively, slamming the cups down. "Who cares what color they are?" Heero merely continued to look patient.  
  
"They don't match the plates." Duo glanced down at the plates and looked up uneasily.  
  
"And?" Heero sighed, giving up.  
  
"Never mind, Duo." Duo set the fifth cup down gentler than the previous four.  
  
"I, uh, gotta go do something. Be right back." A moment later, all that remained was a tuft of brown hair disappearing around the corner up the stairs.  
  
Wufei, now sitting in his customary seat, and Heero, standing in the same place, looked at each other with shared confusion.  
  
-  
  
Later that day, Duo and Wufei were sent out by Quatre with a list of groceries to pick up. Grumbling, Wufei reluctantly followed the hyper brunet down the street, reading the list as he walked. Then, nodding to himself, he tore it in half and handed one half to Duo as they stepped inside the bustling supermarket.  
  
"Why do *I* have to get the icky stuff?" Duo whined. Wufei glared at him, handing him a hand basket.  
  
"Fruits and vegetables have nutritional value and help keep a person healthy. It's a wonder even to me how you manage to look like a walking stick when all you eat is junk food. Maybe a few vegetables a day might help curb your insanity." Duo grinned.  
  
"Not likely. Ah, whatever, Wu-man." Then he pranced off while Wufei restrained himself form yelling "IT'S WUFEI!" for the fifth time that day. He didn't think the people in the store would appreciate it all that much.  
  
Humming under his breath, Duo ambled to the 'Icky' side of the room, reading swiftly down the list while muttering it aloud to himself. "Okies, let's see, green apples, carrots, tomatoes, cauliflower - eww, white broccoli, - red onions, green onions, red peppers, five potatoes, purple grapes, kiwis, strawberries - snicker, - and green bananas so they have time to ripen until next Saturday. Uh..." He stared blankly around the squared off section of the store and sighed. "Well, better get to work." He read the signs and headed for the closest item, the apples. He stared blankly at the four different signs.  
  
'Okay. The green apples he likes are rounder than the red and bigger than the yellow. Granny Smiths are the right green ones, right? Right.' He bagged the amount Quatre wanted and tied it off. Then he selected the tomatoes, the potatoes, a bundle of carrots, the kiwis, the strawberries, a bit of hesitation over the onions and grapes, and whatever he had left until he reached the peppers.  
  
Duo was, admittedly, a pepper man. However, he couldn't tell one pepper's taste from the other, so he didn't particularly care which one he ate as long as he got peppers. He must have stood there five minutes before someone got his attention.  
  
"Maxwell! Why are you just standing there like a blockhead? Have you gotten everything yet?" Wufei scowled at his slightly taller companion. Duo shook his head slowly, unnerving Wufei from his lack of a guttural response.  
  
"Quatre wants red peppers." Wufei looked at him strangely and then at the stand. The peppers in question were on the left.  
  
"So what's the problem?" he said impatiently. "Just get the damned peppers so we can go!"  
  
"Oh, just contemplating whether to get the yellow ones instead and suffer Quatre's wrath for it," Duo said, waving the other's boy's remark away. Wufei scowled, grabbed a bag, and put in two peppers of each kind.  
  
"There, now let's go!" Duo followed the Chinese boy silently. Wufei glanced back at him with hidden worry, more concerned when the boy didn't speak another word until they got back to the house.  
  
"Honeys, we're home!" Duo called cheerfully into the house.  
  
"Oh, good, did you get everything?" Quatre dug into the bag Duo put down on the table and pulled out several items. "Wonderful! I didn't think I'd get enough ingredients for the potato salad." While Quatre continued to dig in the same bag, Wufei went to put things away with Trowa's help and Duo disappeared again upstairs.  
  
Once he was gone, Wufei paused, glanced at Trowa, and nodded.  
  
Trowa sighed.  
  
-  
  
For the next three days, nothing strange or mysterious happened. Eventually, the four boys stopped watching Duo so closely, putting the episode of Saturday off. Wednesday morning, Wufei's shout startled everyone in the kitchen but Duo, who was snickering into his toast.  
  
"BLUE!" the enraged swordsman shouted, storming into the kitchen. He held up his favorite gi (usually a very pristine white) and brandished it in the air. "It's BLUE!" He growled at the now outright laughing braided baka, and shook the poor cloth some more.  
  
"But- but Wuffers, don'tcha *like* blue?" Duo said between breaths. "Honestly, I meant to turn it pink! I musta grabbed the wrong bottle." Wufei held himself back, lest he jump over the table and wring his neck.  
  
"BAKA! I demand you get this heinous color OFF my gi!" He threw the robe at him. "Go to the cleaners and don't come back until it's WHITE again!" Duo grabbed it and stood up, wiping tears off his cheeks.  
  
"Eh, don't worry, Wu-bear, I'll get it clean for ya." Then Duo was gone and Wufei looked decidedly smug. Quatre frowned.  
  
"Wufei, that wasn't nice. You know as well as I do it was red." Wufei nodded.  
  
"Exactly. I think I know what's going on with our braided friend. That just helps to prove it." Quatre looked at Trowa, who seemed to know what Wufei was talking about, and then at Heero, who looked (for once) clueless. Then he returned his gaze to Wufei, looking confused.  
  
"Why would Duo think it was blue when it was obviously red?" Wufei and Trowa frowned.  
  
"Have you ever been inside Duo's room?" Trowa said in his usual soft voice. Quatre shook his head.  
  
"No. I don't think any of us have." It was a weird look that Wufei and Trowa shared.  
  
"Don't you think it strange?" Wufei asked.  
  
"I assumed he liked his privacy," Heero said, now looking at them in interest.  
  
"We think it might be for a different reason. Now would be the best time, seeing as he's not here at the moment." Quatre stared at him.  
  
"But that would be a *terrible* breach of his privacy!" he said, aghast.  
  
"Quatre," Trowa said soothingly, "even you must admit he's been acting stranger than usual lately. Wufei and I are merely concerned." Quatre sighed softly.  
  
"I know. But I had hoped he'd tell us eventually, as his friends."  
  
"I agree," said Heero. He looked at them speculatively. "However, I am also concerned for Duo." Quatre looked at the three of them and sighed resignedly, and admitted he, too, was curious and concerned for his friend.  
  
Together, the four made their way to very the back of the upper floor, where they placed Duo's room simply because of his music. Not that the American complained; it was rare he used the room for anything *but* his music, as he usually slept in Heero's room.  
  
Steeling themselves for what they assumed would be one gigantic mess, Wufei opened the door.  
  
They stared in astonishment.  
  
"Well," Wufei said weakly. "I think this answers our questions."  
  
-  
  
Duo shut the door loudly as he returned, carrying a nice crisp-clean gi. He whistled almost as loudly and walked into the living room. He stopped abruptly. Quatre stared back at him solemnly.  
  
"Uh... hey, Kat..." The sad look in Quatre's eyes scared him for some reason. "Something wrong?"  
  
"Come with me, Duo." Quatre stood and walked toward the stairs. Slowly, Duo followed him, unease growing in his stomach the further they walked down the hall.  
  
"What's goin' on, Kat?" Duo said, feeling like he swallowed a frog. The feeling tripled when they stopped outside his room and he wrung the nearly forgotten gi absentmindedly.  
  
Quatre opened the door and stepped inside, beckoning him to follow.  
  
Sitting on the bed he had used only once or twice was Heero. Wufei sat on his windowsill and Trowa sat at the desk, body strategically positioned. Duo glanced around the room. It looked nearly exactly how he left it.  
  
The walls were the same dark grey, complimenting the dark wooded desk, the black bed sheets, and the white curtains. His closet doors, a black-grey- white camouflage designed pair with plastic scythe-shaped door handles, were open instead of closed; inside were the rest of the clothes not currently in Heero's room. His shirts were on the left, and his pants were on the right. Both sides were arranged by lightest to darkest. His carpet was the only thing that didn't match; it was a strange grey-white that clashed with the walls.  
  
"So... what's up, guys?" Duo said nervously, feet shuffling on the surprisingly very clean floor. In fact, the whole room was clean; not one thing was out of place. "And what are you doing in my room?" He tried to feel indignant, but apparently it had cajoled Anger and Bravery to go for drinks with it.  
  
"We were wondering if you would help us with an experiment," Trowa said, evading, or rather ignoring, the question. He shifted his body, revealing three plump bell peppers sitting innocently on his desk, all three with a single slice lying neatly before it.  
  
"You see," Heero said form the bed, "we can't agree on which pepper tastes better; the red, the green, or the yellow. Knowing how much you like peppers, we wanted your opinion." His eyes stared into his calculatingly.  
  
"Why don't you try the red one first?" Wufei suggested. Duo froze.  
  
He stared at the three vegetables on the desk, feeling a nervous sweat break out on the back of his neck. He searched the faces of the four watching him patiently, but none seemed to want to help him out.  
  
He sighed in defeat, slumping against the wall and sliding down until he sat in a ball on the floor. His dark bangs shadowed his eyes.  
  
"When'd you figure it out?" he said quietly.  
  
"Trowa and I began to suspect something two weeks ago," Wufei answered. "We didn't really understand until Saturday. This morning settled it." Duo glanced up curiously. Wufei looked a bit sheepish. "My gi was really red, Duo. Not blue." Duo looked down again. No one spoke. Only Duo moved, still wringing the now hopelessly wrinkled gi in his hands.  
  
"When I was nine," Duo said slowly, mind dredging up the memory, "Professor G took me to train on the moon. Three months into training there was a meteor shower. One of the meteors struck the moon near the site we were training at, and I was hit here," he rubbed the back of his skull near the bottom, "with a piece of debris. When I woke up later, everything was dark. I couldn't see anything." He paused, biting his lip. Sometime while he was talking, his lover had migrated from the bed to the floor. Duo leaned against Heero and continued.  
  
"The medics said the blow had caused temporary blindness, but they weren't sure how temporary or if it was temporary at all. After a while, they gave up on me ever getting my sight back, but G persisted." He smiled faintly. "He never stopped training me. One reason I'm so good at stealth is because I had to rely on my hearing instead of my sight.  
  
"I was blind for nine weeks and five days before my sight began to come back. At first it was just light and shadows, but then I began to see actual *things.*" He bit his lip again. "But it... was like watching one of those old black and white movies, only live."  
  
"You got your sight back but you couldn't see *color*..." Quatre breathed, understanding now. Duo shrugged, his hands still moving nervously.  
  
"Still can't," he muttered. Louder, he said, "I can still only see white, greys, and black, but they're sharper now. I can get small differences. Such as, purple is darker than green, but green and blue aren't much different form each other. White, yellows, and the lighter colors are nearly identical, the darker pastels are slightly darker, and red is pretty much like purple, a really dark grey."  
  
"If you can catch these differences," Wufei frowned, "why didn't you pick the red pepper?" Duo shrugged, somewhat embarrassed.  
  
"They look the same. Colors are too vague when it comes to food."  
  
"Why didn't you tell us, Duo?" Quatre looked close to tears.  
  
"I don't know," Duo said quietly. "I guess I didn't want to see your pity."  
  
"We all have our secrets, Duo," Trowa said. "A thing like colorblindness isn't going to change our opinion of you." Duo smiled brilliantly.  
  
"Heh, I guess I *was* being silly," Duo said. "Now how about something ta eat? I'm starving!" He jumped up, nearly making Heero fall over.  
  
"You're always hungry, Maxwell," Wufei quipped. Duo stuck out his tongue.  
  
"Well, I'd be *less* hungry if *someone* had let me finish my *breakfast.*" Wufei smirked innocently.  
  
Bickering, the two left the room. Rolling their eyes, the other three followed suit, Quatre running to play interference as Wufei cursed loudly and Duo laughed hysterically.  
  
Back in the room, three innocent orange peppers sat waiting on the desk.  
  
-  
  
Owari  
  
9.00pm March 30 2004 - 12.31am March 31 1004  
  
-  
  
Note: I hope no one was offended, as I meant no such offense. It is possible to see in only black, white, and grey, but colorblindness can also be a distortion of colors, such as seeing red as blue or yellow as green and so forth. The title, by the way, is meant as irony. 


End file.
